I was asked yesterday by KWY news radio in Philadelphia to comment about a
judge who moonlighted as a comedian and TV personality. It was an unusual case but the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the judge to choose between the professions. He could not remain a judge.
Vince Sicari often appeared on a TV show called "What Would you do". In it he would role play characters who refused to serve the gay and lesbian community, bi-racial families, or people with HIV/Aids. In his comedy routines, he would bash ethnic and racial groups. The court felt that the public perception might be that the comedian/actor's true beliefs were reflected in those routines.
If a TV observer or audience member would come before the judge, they may think that their chances for justice were greatly diminished.


(Vince Sicari, performing as Vince August at Caroline’s Comedy Club. Facebook photo)


David Madden


Related tags
David Madden, Harold Kasselman, KYW Newsradio 1060, New Jersey Code of Judicial Conduct, Vince August, Vince Sicari




By David Madden

HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBS) — The New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered a municipal judge in Hackensack to make a choice: he can be a judge or a stand-up comic, but not both.

And now former judge Vince Sicari, 44,has made his choice — comedy.

Sicari earned about $13,000 a year in his judicial role. But under his stage name, Vince August, he may have a budding entertainment career.

But court officials say that would violate New Jersey’s Code of Judicial Conduct.



Gloucester County lawyer Harold Kasselman, a former prosecutor, says once an attorney dons that black robe, everything changes.

“They’re precluded from even being put into any position where there would be a reasonable doubt about their impartiality,” Kasselman explains.

And the court, in a unanimous decision, found the two jobs “incompatable.”

Kasselman — who, by the way, has his own side gig as an author — predicted in our interview that Sicari might opt for the stage.

It turns out he was right. Sicari turned in his resignation a couple of hours after the ruling came down.

As a former public prosecutor I too was precluded from writing any novels or non-fiction for profit. As a private practitioner I can be an author and comedian if I were so inclined but as a public employee you do lose some first amendment and employment rights

  He was barred from his judgeship. But would that necessarily apply if he wrote a book? That would depend on whether views expressed in the book could reflect on the impartiality of the judge.As a public prosecutor for 30 years I was ethically prohibited from writing a book for profit, but as a private practitioner I can. The difference is the public employment job especially the canon of ethics that apply to judges.

Click here